What a hoot!

I love this photo of Connor on holiday in Spain. We were in a Medieval fair when I spotted a man handing around the glove with an Owl sitting on it. I never thought that Connor would do it, but he did and then asked for the Eagle!! So this LO is for SLYMI Week 33: Scrap a square in a square.

Materials:
Daisy Bucket 'Summer Cottage- Guest house'
Cherry Arte 'Poolside Breeze'
American Crafts 'Craft Fair'
October Afternoon 'Road Map' Journal cards and Shapes
Basic Grey Rub ons
Maya Road blooms
MM shimmer stickers alpha black and mini shimmer alpha black
Carolees creations tiny etched natural

The SLYMI Catch up begins

I have several weeks of SLYMI to catch up on so here was Week 30:Scrap your independence. This LO follows me getting my independence from school for the summer (tenuous link! lol). I'm loving Prima at the moment and looking forward to the new season's pretties but here are a few of last seasons in use. Love that the flowers are Pimms colour :)

Materials:
Prima Marketing: Whisper Collection 'Discreet', Woodstock flowers, Artistry flowers, Say it in crystals
Doodlebug Simply sweet mini alpha
MM {note}worthy spiral notebook
MM sentiments stickers
Basic Grey 'Wholy Cow!' rub ons
October Afternoon Lavel Stickers 'Road map'
Dovecraft Chipboard Stickers DCCB16
Magic Mesh
Lace from stash
Jenni Bowlin Die cut calendar cards
Jenni Bowlin Chalkboard Alpha cream

The last weekend

Howdy! I decided against the finger watch when the phrase 'getting worse before it gets better' became so true of my finger. It was not a pretty sight and was extremely painful for a time. But I'm happy to report that it's getting better now :)

Chocolate Lime

Pink Lemonade

So hopefully I'll be scrapping this weekend, the last of the summer holidays and will have things to share with you in the next few days. I wanted to make sure you'd seen the Sept kit sneak peeks over at Indigo Mill though. I hope that Steph won't mind me borrowing her photos but I need some help. I'm desperately trying to decide which colour scheme I like best and what photos will work with them (although really all I'm trying to do is justify having them both ;) ). Any preferences??

And she's off!

Well, I have blogged for the first time over at The Mill Pond as promised. You can see my entry here :)


I've also seen the duty Dr who lanced my finger and gave me double strength (and therefore double size) penicillin. He said he always believes in hitting problems with the hand hard 'because well, they're your hands!'. So hopefully I'll be back to my scrapping best again soon! In the mean time, how about a pretty picture??

Ouchy ouch!

Okay so finger is def worse. Didn't hurt to type before and does now. Hurts all the time actually. So no scrapping for me today but I will be making my first entry on the Indigo Mill blog later today, now that I have author rights :) So hop over and check out The Mill Pond soon :)

Finger watch!

It's looking worse I think. Huuuuummm, might have t0 return to Doc :(

Doh!

I've just realised that the dentist appointment in my diary is the one at my old surgery, which I cancelled! So Connor's first appointment isn't for another month.

The Dentist

Today is Connor's first trip to the dentist. Do you think he'll let me take a photo? :)

Last night I scrapped Alicat's photo of her son Alex. I was hoping to get Beth's CJ completed too, but my finger was really sore after the cutting out so I'll do it tonight instead. I hope that Ali likes her LO. The whole CJ is gorgeous and I think it's in part because of the lovely photos that she's chosen. I've just signed up for another of her 'Own photo' CJs and am going to continue Connor's CJ. Ali quite rightly predicts that we'll be scrapping each other's sons until they're 18!

Materials:

Fancy Pants 'Delight- Bubbles'

Scenic Route teal date label

Bazzil basic cardstock

Papermania Elements 'Cupcakes'

Papermania Alphaminis foam brown

Tim Holtz Adage Tickets

Making Memories 'Audrey die cut'

Using the LO 'Sweet Cowboy by Angie' as inspiration.

Scrapbook Inspirations

I finally sat down with my 'Scrapbook Inspirations' this evening and found that this LO had been published. I still get such a buzz from seeing my work in print. I can highly recommend you submitting work to the magazines for this feeling alone :) I feel very honoured that Shimelle seems to like my work as I'm a big fan of hers.

Tonight I'm working on the last two CJs that I have in my possession (until tomorrow when I pick up another from the sorting office!). I'll show you what I get up to later on...

Penicillin, Photobox and papercrafting

I have always been a Snapfish girl until a couple of months ago when Leigh commented on how quickly her photos came via Photobox. Yesterday at 3.30pm I placed an oder for 82 photos of varying size right up to 12" x 8" and they arrived in today's post!! I have to say that so far in my experiences this is typical of the service provided and I can highly recommend them. They don't seem to have quite so many offers and voucher codes as snapfish but for pure reliability and speed they still win hands down. I like to get ideas for LOs and be able to actually scrap them 24 hours later! You do get 40 free prints for signing up, and even better- if you do it through giveortake.com then you get 4% back. Bargain!

I took my poorly finger to the Dr yesterday. She said "I don't need to tell you that you have an infection!" and then "That looks very tender" as she prodded and poked it ("Yes, it is. Very tender!" *biting lip in pain*). So now I have penicillin to take and it doesn't feel quite as close to exploding as it did yesterday.

Tonight I'm looking forward to the start of 'X-factor'. I'm probably different from most of the X-factor watching population, in that I prefer the live finals to the ear hurting audition stages but I will still be having it on in the background whilst I start to scrap my holiday photos tonight. You can see what I do with the photo at the top of this post later this week on the Indigo Mills Blog :)

Hello 1986!

Those of you who've been with me for a while will know that I've lost 6 stone this year. I made it through the summer with a few new items of clothing but my autumn winter wardrobe is not looking too good! As I'll have to spend a few pennies on some new things for the coming seasons I've been paying a bit more attention to the fashions than I might otherwise do, and I find myself transported back to the 1980s. As if they weren't bad enough the first time around with the shaggy perms and neon and high waisted skirts and tartan shirts- they've made a reappearance only a couple of decades later!! (Off topic slightly- but someone a few weeks ago bemoaned the fact that it wasn't cool to wear shellsuits and I commented that since the 80s are back in now, give it 12 months we might see a shellsuit revival- anyone else looking forward to that??) But there is one thing that I do like about the coming season and that has to be the over the knee and thigh high boots :) My Mum is probably reading this and thinking 'She wouldn't!' and I know for a fact that my sister thinks I'm crazy, but I actually quite fancy a pair myself. I don't think that I'm quite brave enough for the full thigh high but over the knees, I'm tempted! Julia Roberts eat your heart out. One things for sure though. The coming season could well be scrappers paradise!

Prima Pretties

Have you seen the Prima products recently? How yummy scrummy do they look. After the last CHA I really struggled to find stockists, but how about this for a giveaway??

What's more is they're giving away a bundle of stuff every month. Wow!! There are some gorgeous projects using their stash on their blog too. Oooo, pretty.

Hi, honey I'm home

... or is it hunny? I'm never sure! So today Connor and I came home from Felixstowe. We had such a lovely time. I loved wandering round with my camera taking snaps of strange things like this;

Beach Butterfly Sunbathing seagulls
For Sale: one boat Bluesky and Boat masts
Lobster pots

Ah, the beach!

Nets

Amusement chips

I have a busy weekend ahead of me and then the final week of the summer holidays- boo!- but then it's time to settle down and get some scrapping time in- yay! As much as I love the summer holidays I do seem to try and cram too much in to them, and never leave any time for 'me'. Today I've been arranging time to catch up with Leigh for some scrapping in September. It's been far too long. Having said that, I have a very sore finger at the moment so doing anything with my hands hurts!
Have you checked out the brand new Indigo Mill Blog? There's a fantastic tutorial on there from Vicki. And I also noticed that the New 7 gypsies 'Victoria' range is in the shop. It reminds me of you Julie, and it's so pretty and girlie. I'm pretty sure that's going to be making it in to my shopping basket in the very near future.

Have you met Ingvild?

Today I wanted to draw your attention to the work of this amazing lady. She's got a style all of her own, and seems so lovely with it. Look at this amazing RAK she's giving away!

I'm off to my Aunt's in Suffolk for a few days today and am really looking forward to a visit to Papermaze. Shame it's not a little bit later in the year when all the new stock is in, but the sale is on ;)

The footie season, CJs and stuff!

It really irritated me this morning when I read a status update on Facebook that read '...is glad that the football season is finally about to begin'. For some of us it started last week and we've already played two matches!! I'm not even sure why it annoys me since I've not been to a live match at The Valley for a year, but it has. Perhaps it's because a trip to The Madjeski Stadium with my Dad the weekend before last made me realise just how much I've missed my football and inspired me to go at least once a month this season. Rant over :)

I've been working on the CJs and completed four of the seven I have sat on my desk. First up was the overdue 'Dreams' from the Sketch CJ I'm in on UKS.

Then 'Kira' from the All your own photos CJ also on UKS. How cute is this kitty?

'Broomhill' is the All our own photos CJ and it looks like a really interesting place. Used lots of Basic Grey rub ons for this one.

And finally Ruth's '2000' Sketch CJ.

And I think I've found a way to make room for all the new stash I'm clearly going to be buying between now and Christmas here. Hope some of you will join me :)

I was feeling very tired today and having sorted all my holiday snaps, done the washing and mowed the lawn I was ready to do some crafting, but with my little monster still in holiday mode ('I want ice cream', 'I like sweeties best', 'Come play with me Mummy') it was never going to happen so instead I contented myself looking at some of my favourite sites getting ideas and checking out the new stash!! I have a must have and it can be found here. Here is what Christine Middlecamp did with it (taken from Sassafras lass blog)

I thought that Jungle Bungle was great, but look at that Monstrosity range! Now I just had to find out who is going to have it in the UK and when I can have it!!!

But unfortunately in that search I stumbled upon the CHA chat on UKS and discovered three new ranges from October Afternoon (Ducks in a Row, Cherry Hill and Road Map) that I must also have. Ah, who cares about paying the mortgage anyway?!?!

And then there's more bingo cards from Jenni Bowlin that I must have in primary colours for school LOs;

So I daren't even look at the Prima, Basic Grey or My Mind's Eye sites...

Woo hoo!!

The anticlimax I felt about coming home after such a fab time away was put on hold when I checked the 115 emails that had amassed in my inbox whilst I was away only to find an email from Steph at Indigo Mill inviting me to be on the Design team! I am so excited about this :) I want to thank the girls on UKS in the 'Is it time for a Cybercrop??' social group for telling me that I should apply for a DT. Looking at the IM blog (here) and the blogs of the rest of the DT I'm honoured to have been chosen and am really looking forward to being a part of it with them! And a huge thank you to Steph for picking me. I hope that I can prove that you made the right decision about me :) I can't put in to words how excited I am.

Home Sweet Home?

Usually when I get back from holiday it's with relief but this time around a week was definately not long enough! I can't believe that the week is over already. We've had such a fabulous time and I have soooooooo many photos to scrap. Here are just a few of them...

What I didn't get a photo of was the AA man putting petrol in my car half a mile past Reading Services and it's only now that I'm even thinking about that. What kind of a scrapper am I that it wasn't my first thought?!?!?!

Holiday here I come!!

I have spent all day cleaning and tidying and packing and generally getting ready to go on holiday tomorrow. I'm sure there are many of you out there who don't like to come home to an untidy house, and I am definately one of those people. This is strange, because I'll quite happily go out for the day and come back to a messy house. When I laid all the things that I needed to take for Connor and I for a week out on the bed, I thought that there was no way I'd get it all in the little case. But I managed it (although the nighttime pull ups didn't make the cut- i figured there'll be supermarkets out there and if not I have the waterproof sheet packed anyway) and I didn't even have to sit on the case to get it closed. There are two things missing however. The first are my pretty flip flops. I know the last time I wore them (19th July), but can I find them??? No. I love these flip flops. I bought them in Accessorize and they have red and green beads on. I have looked everywhere there and they have disappeared, vanished! So it's the black plastic £2 Tesco jobs that I'll be wearing all holiday :( The second thing missing is 100euros that I had left from the holiday in October, and had two weeks ago but can now no longer find. My Mum, thank you!, bailed me out and brought some money over but where on earth has that gone? Perhaps my flip flops got fed up of the rain too and took the money and went abroad?!

Talking of rain, I was very lucky today. I put the washing on the line first things this morning and it was muggy but mostly white clouds and not grey ones. I then ran some errands (finally registered with a dentist over this side of town!) and got home just as it started to spit with rain. Within minutes it was abolutely chucking it down!!! I managed to get all the holiday items inside and still fairly dry, but as for the rest and myself- we were drenched. What is that about??? It's August!! I am very pleased that I booked a holiday abroad now and will be enjoying my week in the sun/sea/pool.

Have a good week everyone. I hope that my departure will encourage the sun to shine here! x

The party's here!!!

Thanks for dropping by! I hope that you're all enjoying the party and getting inspired (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, get yourself over to shimelle.com for an ALL weekend party!). I don't know about you, but I've been struggling to get back into my crafty life since I had to put it on the backburner whilst I marked exam papers and dealt with the end of term so this party came at just the right time for me.

I do like to work from sketches!! Even if I have an idea in my head of how I'd like the page to turn out I usually scribble my ideas down. The inspiration for this LO were the downloads that Shimelle sent in advance of the party. The design I came up with based around them looked like;
Then it was just a case of putting all the elements together (since I already had the occasion to scrap in mind) and hey presto!

I was going for a rather messy look which sort of sums up the spa break we had only last week. Having not had a drink for a while, I (and my fellow spa goers) were a little worse for wear after only a glass and things did get a little messy :) But I also wanted there to be a little bit of glitz and glamour (we did try to dress for dinner!) so I combined the bling and flourishes to mirror that. The messy look is achieved by tearing a cardboard box up, and splattering paint on to it.

Then it was a case of adding whatever I came across to build up the LO. I like busy LOs with lots of elements. At one of my first ever crops I remember the woman next to me telling me you should always take off the last thing you've added because it's always one step too far. I say rubbish!! The busier the better. I much prefer Shimelle's attitude at a retreat last year when I asked her which title I should use on a LO and she said- 'Why not use both!!'. That's my girl :) When in doubt, use it all. I used loads of old 'bits and pieces' and a mixture of rub ons, stickers and sparkly bits and I even threw on a butterfly after I thought I was done, just for good measure. Why don't you have a look in your stash for some older elements to use today? Happy layering!

Materials:
Cardboard box
Acrylic paint
Entertainment/having fun downloads

Fancy Pants 'Delight Cards'

Fancy Pants 'Delight- Bubbles'

American Crafts Thickers 'Sprinkles'

Bazzil Blooms

Basic Grey buttons

Tim Holtz Adage Tickets

Fly Stickers

Glitz Frosting flowers

K&Co. Urban Rhapsody Adhesive Chipboard

K&Co. Wild Saffron Adhesive Chipboard

Provo Craft rob and bob studio craft candy epoxy sticker 'Birthday'

K&Co. Brenda Walton Clearly Yours

Junkitz Expressionz Rub-ons 'Hip hop expressionz'

Scenic Route 'Afterthoughts colour rub-ons'

daisyd's rub ons 'Reflections'

Crate Paper Mia collection 'Design rubons'

Basic Grey designer rub-ons